Becoming Less Illegal

Deservingness Frames and Undocumented Migrant Incorporation

Bibliographic Data

ID5772398
AuthorsChauvin (0000-0003-1203-2563, University of Amsterdam, corresponding author), Sébastien Chauvin (0000-0001-5977-0593), Blanca Garcés-Mascareñas (0000-0003-4039-3964, Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Blanca Garcés‐Mascareñas
Year2014
Volume8
Issue4
Pages422-432
Publication date2014-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociology Compass (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1751-9020 • E-ISSN: 1751-9020
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/soc4.12145
OpenAlexW2153130009
LanguageEN
Citations received257
References cited54

Over the last two decades, research on unauthorized migration has departed from the equation of migrant illegality with absolute exclusion, emphasizing that formal exclusion typically results in subordinate inclusion. Irregular migrants integrate through informal support networks, the underground economy, and political activities. But they also incorporate into formal institutions, through policy divergence between levels of government, bureaucratic sabotage, or fraud. The incorporation of undocumented migrants involves not so much invisibility as camouflage - presenting the paradox that camouflage improves with integration. As it reaches the formal level of claims and procedures, legalization brings up the issue of the frames through which legal deservingness is asserted. Looking at the moral economy embedded in claims and programs, we examine a series of frame tensions: between universal and particular claims to legal status, between legalization based on vulnerability and that based on civic performance, between economic and cultural deservingness, and between the policy level and individual subjectivity. We show that restrictionist governments face a dilemma when their constructions of "good citizenship" threaten to extend to "deserving" undocumented migrants. Hence, they may simultaneously emphasize deservingness frames while limiting irregular migrants' opportunities to deserve, effectively making deservingness both a civic obligation and a civic privilege

Citizenship · Criminology · Extortion · Law and economics · Legalization · Obligation · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Vulnerability · Employment and Welfare Studies · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Refugees, and Integration

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